Abstractions – Music for Mindfulness and Escape

Abstractions – Music for Mindfulness and Escape
Original Post | Dec 8, 2014 | Blog on the Fly, In the StudioAbstractions – Music for Mindfulness and Escape – Toby the Hat
Finally, I’ve released the above Album, sometimes as my good friend Alison Nancye says you have to ‘let it go.’ I always find my own work the hardest to do this with – as an artist you often question ‘Is this good enough?’ ‘What if I tried this?’ ‘Will people get it?’. Here’s the thing, I must have listened to each of these tracks over a 100 times, if I can listen to anything that many times, in my humble opinion – it is good enough! This album has been a really great journey for me both in a creative sense and an educational sense. In a musical sense it is at times quite close to the bone, Reflections (track 7 ) for example was written and recorded ‘in the moment’ it is literally my feelings and thoughts in musical form, I won’t divulge my thoughts at the time, as I feel it’s important for you the listener to form your own. What sounds ‘green’ to me might be ‘orange’ to you, who’s to say who’s right it’s how it feels to you that is important.
In putting the Album together I really wanted to take you – the listener – on a journey. These days in our ever frantic and technologically driven world we’re often guilty of not giving ourselves a time out, we take bite-size chunks out of things, be they articles on the net, a track off a CD, a tweet, a Facebook message, everything seems to have to be short and to the point. When I first listened to music as a kid we had those old fashioned things called LPs and Tapes – I still have some in the Studio. The thing is, I used to pop an album (Tape) into my Walkman and listen to it all the way through. One of the reasons I guess, is carrying around a dozen albums would be the equivalent of carry a dozen i Pods around- somewhat impractical! But for my mind- my two cents – Albums were crafted in a way to to really engage the listener, to take them on a journey,tell a story ,and before you think I’m getting mushy, the Album that is in my minds eye at the moment is Appetite for Destruction by Guns and Roses (which as a teenager I loved and still do!). Paul Simon’s – Graceland, Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA, Lou Reed – Sally can’t Dance, I could go on but the point is – journey.
There will be tracks that you relate to more than the others which is perfectly natural, and tracks you’ll relate to depending on your mood, whatever floats your boat. I truly hope some of you ‘the truly brave’, will switch they’re phone to silent,forget about it,forget the e-mail, facebook etc and listen through a decent set of headphones or speakers and give yourself time to reflect, breathe and relax. ‘Sparkly life’ (Track 5) will give you a little jolt, which is on purpose, I wrote this as a quick ‘refresh’ and take a positive step forward – embrace the day and give it your best.
Finally regarding Live,Love,Life the bonus track. Earlier this year I had the good fortune to meet Alison Nancye who’s album Meditation for Everyday we recorded,mixed and produced here at Stonehurst Studios. Before embarking on the Album she discussed with me her burning desire to write a song this year (her to do list!). So she forward me some lyrics and the result was Live,Love,Life. Alison has really helped me reestablish my drive and focus this year, and this album probably wouldn’t be here yet if it weren’t for her so it’s really there as a Thank you to Alison – you can tick that off this years to do list:)
Enjoy
Live Love Life